UPDATE HISTORY
2017

February

 

FEBRUARY 22:

Added the RIAA certification info for the first 6 singles and the first 5 LPs.

Also the Arista's LPs "Greatest Hits" and "Then and Now...." both went gold and later platinum.

Rhino's CDs "Greatest Hits" and "Best of the Monkees" went gold.


"I'm A Believer" through "Daydream Believer" shipped Gold; meaning that more than
a million copies were ordered and shipped before they ever went on sale to the public.
"Last Train To Clarksville" took a couple months and "Valleri" took only 3 days after release.

Back then, singles needed one million copies sold to reach gold status, however
LPs needed one million in sales at wholesale value, which was around a third of the list price.

For platinum status the RIAA waited until the Colgems albums were available on CD,
so the Monkees first five albums all were given platinum and/or multi-platinum awards the same day.
After 1989, they changed the standards so going gold meant selling 500,000 copies
instead of a million, and platinum meant selling 1 million.

 

In doing this I went through each of the Colgems records and updated
their release dates (with Derek Miner & Craig Smith's help) to what I think is correct.

Really it's an educated guess when a record was released because promo copies
were often mailed out before the release date. What is known is when a record was promoted
in a trade magazine (Billboard, Cash Box and Record World) and when it entered the charts.

The first single was released on August 16, 1966 and "Someday Man" was released April 15, 1969;
everything else is a best guess.